"Fred" passed away on July 22, 2021, after a rapid decline over several months due to heart issues. He was 89 years and 1 month.
He was the patriarch of our family. We appreciated his strong family values and how present he was in the lives of our family every week until he and Hildegard moved to Kelowna. Dad provided work and support to build our first home, build our pharmacy business and be a leader and mentor for our family. He was a terrific Opa and mentor to Mark and Brandon, and always answered 'yes' to every request and always provided his best support.
His love of photography and the outdoors and his desire to document his experience with film and video has left an incredible library of memories for our family. We have great memories of many day trips to Whistler, Manning Park and the lakes and rivers that we visited close by. He spoke fondly and often about his trip to Alaska with Mark, and to the Rockies and Alberta with Brandon, and to Cathedral Lakes with Paul. We hope that his great-grandsons, Bodhi and Holden, have personal memories beyond what they can see in his videos. We will ensure that his newest great-grandchild due in October knows Opa through oral and video stories.
Fred was fiercely proud of his German heritage and took an active role in promoting and participating in the social activities at the Club Berlin, Alpen Club and Lyra Choir, and the Austria Club. He developed many lifelong friendships there. He strongly voiced his pride of Germany and its advances and accomplishment in sports, racing, technology, transportation, business, finance and for Germany as a world leader. His pride and strong opinions were part of his character, and he was respected and admired for his forthrightness by most. Also, his pride in his work as a Master Plumber showed through when he would state "we did the plumbing in that high-rise and those apartments" as we drove through Vancouver.....so many buildings.
He accomplished a great deal in his lifetime. His impact on this family cannot be measured but hopefully will be reflected in our actions and values and pride.
Rest in Peace.
Heidi and Paul Polachek.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18